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New Zealand Herald, Volume XIX, Issue 6485, 30 August 1882, Page 5

. Our readers will remember that not long ago Miss North paid a visit to Auckland, and other parts of New Zealand, for the purpose of sketching from nature some of the most characteristic forest scenes in tho colony. Her visit to New Zealand was part of a world-wida tour for the purpose of obtaining accurate sketches of the most remarkable botanical specimens characteristic of the several countries she visited. In the Kcw Gardens has been recently erected a place in which all these sketches are stored. This is designated "Miss North's Botanical Picture Gallery." The collection which this building contains has been justly described as " an s.pergu within a small space of all the chief botanical plants of. the world." .Miss North's task has taken many years and much toil to accomplish, upon the energy, the courage, the skill, and the talent which its fulfilment demanded. The following paragraph from the Daily News clearly expresses what Miss North has dono "Following the pictures as they are given in the catalogue, one proceeds as it wereupona botanical expedition literally all round the world. TeneriSe, Brazil, Jamaica, New York, California, India, Ceylon, Borneo, Singapore, Java, Japan, Australia, and.New Zealand have been more or less explored by this indefatigable admirer of the beauties of nature. Many and curious are the plants which are thus seen. There is the great, weird cotton tree which the natives of Jamaica hold in superstitious veneration, and which they will neither cut down when it is alive, nor remove when it is dead. The carniverous plants of North America, which entrap insects and feed upon them, are also full ot interest. Other plants which are associated with the superstition of mankind are the sacred lotus, or Pudma of India and China, and the Champaka, which the Hindoos look upon as sacred to Vishnu. Nothing, however, in the way of vegetation is too humble for the brush of the artist, and botanists will find the other, speciriens exhibited no less interesting. Miss North does not altogether disregard the picturesque, and there are a number of breezy landscapes and striking bits of natural scenery in the collection. Glimpses, too, of the social ; aspects of life in the distant countries in which she has journeyed are here and there afforded. A picturesque vie.w under the | ferns at Gongo, Brazil, depicts'in the foreground a alave woman who brought the artist's pro visions over eight miles of forest I road." - - —• •- ■ ■ ■